Give Disabled Veterans Power To Change

Give Disabled Veterans Power To Change

The truth only has power when it is known. Support the facts and give them the ability to fight for their lives.

http://www.combatptsdwoundedtimes.org/ Covers the real news and government reports to arm veterans with information they need to know. Congress has jurisdiction over how our veterans are treated yet have failed for decades. National news used to consider what was happening to our veterans as important yet somehow managed to forget that awesome responsibility replacing their stories with politicians using them for votes. 

Since 2007 Wounded Times has covered over 25,000 stories, filmed over 200 videos and broke over 2.5 million page views.  

This proved veterans and families like mine have a hunger to know what is going on all over the country. No politics, no popular claims without facts to back them up but above all, dedicated to defeating PTSD.  I've been doing this work since 1982 when I had to go to the library to understand what combat does to our veterans beyond the wounds you can see with your own eyes.

Another fundraise for a disabled veteran coming up for Orlando Rocks and another escort for the Wall in Wickham Park. Camera is wearing out but I'm not.

Orlando Rocks 2015 Orlando Rocks 2014 Orlando Rocks 2013

Veteran Suicides, The Stories of Their Lives Lost

Reporting on Veteran Suicides Easier Than Living With The Stories
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 7, 2016

The reporters at San Diego Union Tribune did a fabulous job reporting on suicides. You really should read their stories and of those from the families left behind.

This report is on the simple fact it is hard to cover these stories for reporters but even harder if you have a personal connection to them. Families talk about their suffering, not for someone to feel sorry for them, but more for the sake they don't want others to know that level of pain they wished someone had stopped them from feeling.

Going on 34 years of doing this I remember what that felt like.  First I wanted to understand my husband.  He's a Vietnam veteran.  After growing up surrounded by veterans, I needed to know why he as so different and experiencing what my Dad called "shell shock." After all these years, he's living a good quality of life and we proved that no one is stuck suffering. Marriages don't have to end.  

I started to research it to understand him, then to help save him and his friends. Along the years I understood myself as well.  What I didn't understand was I couldn't save everyone.  I couldn't save my husband's nephew, who was also a Vietnam veteran.

I knew it all! I knew what he needed to know and how to explain it so that he wouldn't think it was his fault anymore than what happened to him after service was his fault alone.  The trouble is, I didn't know how to get him to listen.  He committed suicide and ever since then, every time I read about another suicide, it is like a dagger to my heart and I run through all the "what if" questions that never seem to be answered.

Back then, no one was talking about veterans surviving combat only to lose their lives by their own hands years afterwards.  I hoped someday they would stop suffering in silence and families would no longer feel shame for something that was not their fault.

Now they are talking and to me, these families are heroes.  Reporters finding value in telling their stories are vital in all of this.  With that said, there is still a lot of misinformation out there that never really seems to get corrected.

First is the number "22 a day" when that number is wrong. It freaks me out to hear it repeated by a charity taking care of the families as much as it nauseates me to read a politician using that number. They should know better.  As long as reporters do not learn the facts ahead of time, veterans will go on questioning the other information in the report. If they can't get that number right, what else are they getting wrong?

The CDC reports over 40,000 Americans commit suicide every year.  Every state has reported veteran suicides double the civilian population rate. That means there are over 26,000 a year ending the lives that survived military service.

Reporters do not remind folks that the vast majority of these veterans are over the age of 50 any more than they cover the simple fact that those are the veterans all the new charities won't care about.

Are all veterans equal? Our generation thought so but that was only after Vietnam veterans decided to fight for all generations despite how they were treated by older veterans.

Reporting on suicides is hard but telling the truth is harder when the majority are taking the easy way out repeating a number that is just easy to remember.

None of this is easy for the veterans and nothing is easy on the families they leave behind. PTSD does not have to win or defeat survivors of combat.

SUICIDES: TOUGH BUT NECESSARY REPORTING
The San Diego Union-Tribune
By Jeanette Steele
Feb. 5, 2016

For journalists, writing about suicide is walking a knife’s edge.

On one hand, it’s a major issue that deserves attention.

“We have an ethical commitment to tell the truth about a public health problem,” said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.

If you don’t report on suicides, he said, “You might as well not cover the dangers of smoking.”

On the other hand, he and other experts said news coverage that makes suicide seem inevitable, or like a legitimate solution, could lead to more people taking their lives.

News stories also should not disclose information that might prompt people in despair to copycat the event, such as writing about a particular train platform where people have jumped to their deaths.

For this project about younger U.S. military veterans, perhaps the biggest issue is whether the life challenges they face are presented as hopeless and unsolvable.

But the hurdles can certainly be overcome, according to those who specialize in the topic.

“There’s no need to suffer, there’s no need to end a life by suicide. It’s a health problem that has solutions,” said Kim Ruocco, a spokeswoman for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, a nonprofit group that helps military families deal with grief.

“You can show that, yes, we have some cracks in our system that need to be repaired, but there are lots of places where you can get hope,” said Ruocco, whose late husband, a Marine Corps officer, died by suicide in 2005.
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Veteran Suicide Triple Crisis Counting Congress

Coffman: The twin crisis of veterans' mental health and suicide
Denver Post
By Mike Coffman
Guest Commentary
POSTED:02/06/2016

In April 1991, I returned home from serving as a light armored infantry officer with the U.S. Marine Corps in the first Gulf War. The unit was the first battalion to engage Iraqi forces inside of Kuwait. We did so for three days prior to the main ground attack on Feb. 24, 1991.

Mike Coffman Denver Post

For us, the stress of being on the front lines waiting for combat turned out to be worse than the actual combat phase itself because the Iraqi army had been severely degraded in a punishing bombing campaign that preceded the ground attack.

While preparing to go home after the war ended, I attended an out-briefing by Navy psychologists about some of the psychological challenges that we would likely face. What I remember most was his warning that we had become members of a highly interdependent ground combat team that had been together for months and that after we were separated and alone for the first time, we were likely to experience depression.

Many troops used to the stresses of combat and the interdependent bonds of their fellow soldiers have a difficult time adjusting to civilian life and come home feeling isolated and alone. 

In fact, many find themselves needing help that too often just isn't there.

It is absolutely vital that we as a nation address the twin crisis of veteran suicide and mental health issues.

Today, thousands of servicemen and women and recent military veterans have seen combat. Many have seen their buddies killed or witnessed death up close. Many have also been wounded and had to endure extended and frequently painful and difficult recoveries. These are types of events that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other types of mental illness.
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I left this comment.

While I applaud you talking about all this, it is troubling to see the "22 a day" used when it is not true. Sorry, but you are on the Committee and should know better. The CDC reports there are more than 40,000 suicides in America. At the same time, states are reporting veterans are committing suicide double the civilian population rate. That means there are over 26,000 veterans ending their lives after risking them for the sake of others. The VA study was an average from 21 states with limited data.

Gulf War veterans have been forgotten about but so have Vietnam veterans. They are the majority of the suicide demographic yet no one is talking about that fact. They are not talking about families like mine even though Vietnam veterans are the ones who came home and fought for all the research done on PTSD. Had Congress asked any of us, we could have helped these young veterans everyone is talking about.

By the way, all the Bills Congress passed did not work. OEF and OIF veteran suicides are triple their peer rate after they had been trained to be "resilient" even though researchers knew it would make the problem worse. All the Bills coming out of Congress are repeats of "doing something" instead of doing the right thing.

Looks more like there is a triple crisis for veterans when members of Congress haven't even taken the time to find out what is true and what is false.

PTSD 90 Year Old WWII Veteran Forced From Home By VA?

Veterans Administration forces 90-year-old chaplain from home
Portland Tribune
Written by Molalla Pioneer
Friday, 05 February 2016

Baker was also a prolific writer. He wrote eighteen (18) books addressing depression, pain, forgiveness and many other issues.

COURTESY OF BAKER FAMILY - Don and Martha Baker in 2011

The Veterans Administration has ordered a 90-year-old chaplain, who once preached before President Gerald Ford, to move from his home of five years. Don Baker will be forced to relocate from the Molalla Manor Care Center, to the nearest VA sanctioned facility in Woodburn, 15 miles away.

“This move will be very difficult for him, because his health is tenuous,” said Baker’s daughter, Kathryn Thomas Barram. Baker suffers from Post-Tramautic Stress Disorder stemming from his service in the Air Corps during World War II, said Barram.

Last month, the Veterans Administration notified Baker’s family that it was pulling its contract with Molalla Manor.

Baker was ordered to move within six weeks.

Armed with more than 200 pages of testimony supporting the chaplain, his physicians and family appealed to the VA to reconsider its decision. The VA denied the formal appeal, but extended the relocation date by 12 days to Feb. 12, 2016.

"This is a shame - not ethical treatment of a family and a patient," wrote Baker's physician, Ray E. Smucker, M.D. in his letter to the VA. "Is this the care the VA expects for their patients? I would understand if his care was at risk. His care at Molalla Manor has been great over the years."
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Remains of SPC Brian Orolin Identified

Remains Identified as Missing Army Veteran Brian Orolin
NBC News
by RACHAEL TROST
FEB 4 2016

Remains found in Harris County, Texas have been positively identified as those of missing Army veteran Brian Orolin, who disappeared in November 2014.

According to officials with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, the remains were discovered the day after Christmas 2015 and took several weeks to identify.

The cause and manner of death are still pending.

Donna Orolin, Brian's wife, confirmed the news late Wednesday on the 'Help Find Brian Orolin' Facebook page.

"The search for missing Army Veteran, SPC Brian Orolin, has come to an end," she posted. "I would appreciate your continued prayers for my 2 young daughters and I, as we begin our journey to mourn from his loss and for my 2 girls to grow up without their Dad. We would appreciate your respect for our privacy at this time."
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From 2015
Family Searching For Missing Texas Afghanistan Veteran